Rail engineers felled a tree on South Road which had been used as a dumping ground for bags of dog faeces.

Irresponsible dog owners had been hurling the plastic bags of poo into a tree near York Bridge beside the Morecambe to Lancaster railway line.

Network Rail, owners of the land, said they also cleared other nearby trees after complaints from residents.

“We assessed the situation, the likelihood of such behaviour sadly being repeated and decided the best course of action was to remove the trees and the opportunity for irresponsible dog owners to foul our property,” said a Network Rail spokesman.

Chris Dickson, a resident, said: “That’s drastic action.

“It seems an easy way to resolve the problem, but is it a lazy one? “I can’t tell you the amount of times in a week I have to tell people to pick up their dog muck, as they just turn a blind eye if they think people are not watching.